Dentures are replacements for missing teeth and normally consist of a curved plate carrying one or more artificial teeth and configured to fit onto the upper or lower gums. Typically, a denture user can wear a denture during normal, everyday life and optionally remove the denture when desired, such as for sleeping or for washing and maintaining the denture.
The irregularities of the contours of the upper and lower gums traditionally pose difficulties with fixing dentures in a position within a mouth. These difficulties are heightened as the contours of the gums may continually change as the mouth moves during normal use. Various solutions have been proposed to overcome these difficulties, but such solutions fail to provide a substantially secure attachment of dentures within the mouth as the denture may move during normal use. Examples of such incomplete solutions include use of powdered adhesives, viscous materials, and other undesirable adhesive products. As an additional disadvantage of using adhesive products, saliva may reduce the viscosity or adhesive properties of such products. Furthermore, saliva containing adhesives may be accidentally swallowed leading to stomach irritation.
Therefore, there remains a need for a solution to at least one of the aforementioned problems. For instance, a denture-securing device is needed that may substantially secure dentures to gums, preferably without requiring adhesives. Preferably, a cleanable and reusable denture-securing device is desired. It is also desirable that the denture-securing device can be constructed using materials having a low likelihood of irritating the inside of the mouth or stomach and no association with causing serious health problems.